an attempt at making eclairs

during college, it was normal to spend sleepless nights at a groupmate's place to work on the numerous case studies and systems analysis projects our professors throw at us. but in high school, i don't remember going through that same stressful ordeal. i don't know if it's a requirement for high school nowadays or only because of his school's high educational standard that my 3rd year brother is now a haggard looking mess with their feasibility study.

i know how it feels like to cram the night before a defense. so when my brother asked for help in making eclair at 12 am, i willingly agreed. not only because i wanted to somehow ease his tension, the fact that i like eclair made it a cooking task i can't resist. i've long wanted to make pastries but so far, the only thing i've ever done pastry related is banana cake. so when the challenge of making eclair for the first time posed itself in front of me, i couldn't say no even if it means having only 4 hours of sleep before next day's office work. how did the experiment turn out? read on to find out...

using my mom's old cookbook as reference, i was surprised at how easy it is to make the dough. here's how: sift 75 grams of flour and 1/2 tsp of salt in one container. in a saucepan, put 4 oz water and 60 grams unsalted butter over low heat. once it boils, turn off the stove and immediately add the flour & salt. mix thoroughly until well blended. add 2 eggs one at at time to form a smooth solid dough. place dough in a piping bag and line the baking sheet with finger sized logs of dough. bake in a preheated 200 degree oven until golden brown.

after it's done, i knew it was a success coz the pastry looks (aside from the striations formed by the star nozzle we used) and feels like an eclair minus the choco frosting and custard filling. sadly, that's as far as i got coz both me and my brother were too sleepy to continue. i never get to see and taste how the finished eclair looked like as i left early for office this morning even before he started on the filling. but he said it was good. and being a simple recipe as it is, i know we'll both be doing it again anytime soon.